EBFA, A Twenty Terawatt Electron Beam Accelerator

Abstract

The design for an accelerator (EBFA) for studying electron beam driven, inertially confined fusion is described. The EBFA will generate two 3 MV, 20 nsec electron beams in back-to-back diodes with a total beam energy of 200 kJ and a peak power of 2 × 1013W

The major components of the accelerator are Marx generators, intermediate storage capacitors, pulse forming lines, transmission lines and diodes. Six to eight, 3 MV Marx generators operated in parallel will charge 24 intermediate-storage, water-dielectric capacitors in approximately 1 μsec. The pulse forming lines consisting of two 24-meter diameter, disc-shaped oil-dielectric Blumleins, are charged in 100 nsec by the simultaneous discharge of the intermediate-storage capacitors through triggered gas switches. Several hundred switch channels closing in < 3 nsec will be required to produce a 10 nsec risetime output pulse. The voltage pulses are then transmitted through the disc-shaped transmission lines to the back-to-back diodes where the electron beams are generated and focused onto a spherical target.